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Begin wherever your curiosity leads. The studies will be here when you’re ready. When I shared my first Matthew study on Facebook today, I mentioned that I planned to post daily, though I might not share every post on Facebook. As I continue setting up this blog, I’ve realized that what matters most to me is making my past studies available for anyone who wants to explore them. For now, I’ll be adding posts to my heart’s content as I work through those studies. Some days that may mean one post; other days it may mean several. I’ll continue reading through and preparing each one before sharing it. There is no need to keep up with everything as it appears. This blog is becoming a place you can browse at your own pace—begin with a book, a question, or a study that interests you, and follow from there. The Bible Books page gathers studies by book, while Study Threads helps connect topics that travel through more than one book. The labels on individual posts also bring related material to...
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27. Ten Commandments: The Anointing Abides—Whom Are We Being Taught to Follow?

God’s Image Study — Inside the Mind — Where the Word Leads

In the golden calf account, Aaron announced a feast in God’s name while participating in something God condemned. Religious language and misplaced devotion appeared together.

That combination deserves attention as we continue examining idols and images.

A message can encourage people to seek God while also teaching them to depend upon a particular leader or establishment. We need to examine where that dependence leads.

Are people being directed toward God—or being taught that their relationship with God depends upon remaining attached to us?

First John gives us a place to begin.

In 1 John 2:24–27, John addresses people who have already received. He tells them to let what they heard from the beginning remain in them, connects that abiding with the Son and Father, and warns about people attempting to deceive them.

Then he describes the anointing:

“the anointing whom you received from Him abides in you”
— 1 John 2:27, LSB

John goes on to identify that anointing as teaching them and speaks of their abiding in him.

Notice the details: received, abides, teaches.

The passage describes an ongoing relationship. It does not locate the received anointing in a building that the person must repeatedly visit to recover access. If God’s Spirit dwells within someone, walking out of a meeting does not leave that indwelling behind.

John also keeps this teaching connected with what they heard from the beginning and his warning about deception. We should preserve the whole passage. See 1 John 2:24–27.

Now consider those who have yet to hear and believe.

Romans 10:14–17 describes a sequence: messengers are sent, the message is preached, people hear, and faith comes through hearing. The messenger has a purpose. What is proclaimed directs the hearer toward the one in whom they are to believe. See Romans 10:14–17.

Paul states his own purpose plainly:

“For we do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord”
— 2 Corinthians 4:5, LSB

In the same verse, he describes himself and his fellow workers as servants for Jesus’ sake.

That gives us a standard against which to examine religious leadership. Does the messenger serve the hearer’s relationship with God, or make personal loyalty to the messenger increasingly necessary?

We explored this distinction in the first commandment: the Father draws people to the Son, and the Son reveals the Father. The messenger’s work must preserve that relationship.

This is where the mixture becomes important.

An establishment may speak about God while also asking for membership, donations, agreement, and continued attendance. We must examine what those requests mean in practice:

  • Is membership presented as proof that someone belongs to God?

  • Is questioning a teaching treated as disloyalty to God?

  • Is financial support associated with spiritual acceptance or access?

  • Can a leader’s explanation be examined by the same standard applied to everyone else?

  • Does the teaching help people recognize and follow God’s instruction, or make them afraid to proceed without institutional approval?

Matthew 6:24 identifies God and wealth as competing masters that cannot both be served. It directs our attention to allegiance: what actually governs the decisions being made? See Matthew 6:24.

Testing must also include claims of spiritual authority. Paul warns about a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel. A claim that God is directing something must therefore be examined rather than accepted simply because it is confidently presented. See 2 Corinthians 11:3–4.

The Bereans provide an example of receiving a message eagerly while examining Scripture to determine whether it was so. Careful examination accompanied their hearing. See Acts 17:11.

This examination includes what is written here. A study should help readers attend to Scripture; it should not demand that they protect the writer’s conclusions from scrutiny.

As we consider how people and institutions can become objects of misplaced allegiance, the question is personal:

Have I allowed someone’s role in helping me hear about God to become authority over my relationship with God?

The anointing, the message, and the messenger must each be considered in their stated role. Our allegiance belongs to YHWH (יהוה). Those who serve should continually direct us toward him and the Son he sent.

Threads to Follow

  • The received anointing that abides and teaches.

  • Sent messengers, hearing, and believing.

  • Preaching Christ rather than ourselves.

  • Membership, money, and institutional dependence.

  • Testing spiritual claims and examining teaching.

  • Idols within: the loyalties we may not recognize.

The books were opened…

🌿 By Maria Emilia


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